A Saturday walk at the river (South arm of the Fraser, at Steveston)

What a difference a couple of weeks have made at the river! The last time I was here the water was blue-black and solemn and dreary, and the grasses were just brown lumpy islands with water rivulets sparkling around them.Now look! The warmer temps have caused a melt and the rich sedimentary water has turned the river a slight violet shade. The grasses have greened and grown to hide periscoping Canada geese.Today was somewhat windy, but warm and bright, and the wind played on the water with those little gusts which you could watch sparkling along. You know the ones? The ones which look like a shoal of thousands of little silvery minnows?It feels so good to be at the river, to see the broom blooming, welcoming birds and bees, to see the gulls banking in the wind and moving from place to place just by spreading their wings and catching the breeze.It felt good to look across to the eagles nest on the island and realise that an eagle just lifted from there.The only thing which spoiled this lovely, lovely day, was the startling discovery of twelve fresh shark fins for sale on one of the fishing boats at the fisherman’s dock and several vocal Chinese women fighting over them. Twelve harmless creatures, caught, mutilated and thrown back to die slowly of their injury, for prestigious soup, for showing off wealth, for pride...for nothing. Banned in Vancouver, but not here in the city of Richmond. But still, there is an election coming very soon and banning shark fin soup is a political platform.So we will try to put that in the back of our mind and sit here in the shady corner with the river behind us and concentrate on how good it feels to be here.